Mad Push

From this point on, I'm not sure how much work I'll be able to do.

I'm so close to finishing high school, and I'm determined to finish before my birthday.

^_^

Shading?

Is it working?

While a 100% realistic butterfly is not my goal, I'm still not sure about my colors. I think I might have to go back and add a few stitches in a different shade to keep it from looking so severe.

But I'm not sure if I mind the sharp cut off... I've been studying butterflies on Pinterest and seamless shading doesn't seem to be the cold hard standard in the natural world... 

Another shot from another angle: 

The jury's still out on when the two sets of wings became overlapped in such a funny way--but I like it.

^_^

Magnifying magnification

If you remember, a while ago my poor fuzzy eyes caught a break in the form of a hands free magnifier.

I heard angels sing when I saw things, details, I hadn't even known existed!

But then, I found this: 

It's original use was for work with tiny circuits, and its magnification lives up to the task.

While this is what I saw with the hands free, 

I felt like I was looking through a microscope when I saw this, taken at the same distance from the brush as the picture above:

Great, huh? 

I don't know what the actual magnification is (I got it at a Mexican version of Radioshack), but it's waaaay stronger than what I was working with before.

I've actually been working with it for about a month and a half. I just never got around to posting about it.

^_^

Weekend stitches

I have to say that I'm starting to feel the enormity of Doodleplex. 

Honest to goodness, the piece of canvas I'm tackling is as tall and wider than I am.

Still, small progress is progress nonetheless.

It's really not as much as it looks... or I'm looking at it through eyes that see how much work is yet to be done.

Either way, I'm loving it!

Alas...

I have to be honest with you guys, lately, I haven't been feeling very "tatty". I'm thinking it might be due to my still, as of yet, lingering frustration with Evelyn's Doily. 

I just can't seem to be happy with it. 

Anywho, what I have managed to work on makes up for it (at least in my opinion).
I'm taking some time to get it all together in a few posts.

But aside from that, there's not too much. School's starting to catch up with me and I've been having trouble juggling both crafts and notes.

>_< 

Whooo! Blue!

The first butterfly shall be blue... or at least partly blue.

For the colors, I was inspired by these three pins: 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291889619571554317/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291889619571562350/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291889619571567610/

When it came time to stitching, part of the outline on the first butterfly I decided to work was a little dim. Soo, instead of thinking of the easy way first, I decided to stitch up the lines inside of the wings in stem stitch.

Here, you can see that I did eventually realize that I could just redraw the outline with a marker... 

Anywho, because of the way the design worked out, I didn't need any guidelines when it came time to fill in the wings!

My first little bit of stitching (above).

And then, finally, the first color was done on the right wing!

Of course, as it always goes (at least for me), I decided to have second thoughts about the next colors >_< 

Only time will tell!

^_^

Who said?

It recently occurred to me that I am completely allowed to have more than one embroidery project running at the same time!

Behold, what I've creatively named: Butterflies!

I took some time to study butterflies on Pinterest, and I think they've got loooooooots of potential!

At this point, the pattern has been transferred onto the fabric, and said fabric has had its edge buttonholed: 

I was going to make a sort of "hem" edge, but I wasn't sure it would fit into the hoop. 

Think I'll stick with the basics a little while longer.

^_^

Landmark!!

Just hit 20,000 page views!

WHOOOO HOOOO!!!!

^_^

Getting rid of threads

Because of the number of colors I have in play at one time, and also due to the pink eye episode, when I started on Doodleplex this weekend, I had a lot of parked threads to deal with. 

I don't know about you guys, but the whole "needs to be finished" thing drove me a little nuts.

However, thanks to some serious hours, I was able to at least get rid of five loose threads!

To start with, I finished the outer parts of the four green petals:

In the spirit of getting rid of colors, I tackled all of the dark blue parts: 

Then the grey bits: 

And the aqua thingies: 

And then finally the bases of the pink flowers (though I can't stop thinking "armpit hair" every time I look at it)

I say, on to the pink petals!!!!

^_^

Decisions...

What to do.... oh, what to do when it's 1 AM and you're not tired? 

Honestly.

Butterflies

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about butterflies.

Can't seem to get them out of my head.

Maybe it means another project is on the horizon... 

Details, details...

During our last embroodlery session, I mentioned an issue with the colors.

Did I mention an issue with the colors and the fabric? 

As you can see here, the most-used color in each of the petals is the one coming into direct contact with the background fabric. 

The problem is that a certain very pale pink is rather similar to a particular shade of canvas.

Oh, what to do? 

Border for your thoughts? 

Again, choosing the color for the border was an agonizing decision. Though it turned out to be my first choice. 

Also, if you look closely you can see I added a little something extra. 

And then a little something more...

And then even more.

This is where I stopped. I kept thinking about circuses and cotton candy, but it felt right. 

I used a sort of back stitch for the pink lines in the petal. Stem stitch made up the outlines with some burgundy couching and single-wrap knots in the same shade of dark blue as in the green petal.

Speaking of the green petal...

I couldn't leave it all alone.

I had to have a roadmap for the rest of the petals.

It's all a little nuts, and sometimes I think it might be too much, but I like it. ^_^

Last, but not least, my current progress: 

That's what I call a good weekend.

^_^

Could this work?

After much gear grinding, and a few hours of smoke pouring out of my ears, I've come up with a possible alternative for the next round of Evelyn's Doily:

I think it could work. Especially if I use it as a sort of "base round" for whatever I can think of next.

^_^